Little by Little
by PyroQueenOfFire
Summary: Brooke Davis is gravely injured saving her daughter from a demon, leaving Dean to try and rectify the situation--leaving him to get to know his little girl. Brooke/Dean; Haley/Sam; Brooke/Dean/Serena family; Haley/Sam/Jamie family
1. Intro

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**This is for Danielle to make up for not really updating "Carousel".**

**I hope you guys like it too!**

**WARNINGS: Language, Blood, Gore, Sex, Dark Themes**

**ENJOY!**

xxxx

Serena Davis-Winchester flipped her cards up and looked at her father, remembering every bit of what happened to her mother. Dean looked back at her, not sure of what to say to his little girl as her mother lay in her hospital bed down the hall, both of them waiting in the waiting room to hear from the doctor about Brooke's condition. She'd been attacked by a demon and she was in a deadly position and Serena was scared.

Dean looked at Serena as she slapped a Jack on the table and took the pile of cards, smiling sadly and then looking forlorn again. Serena was worried that her mother was going to die and leave her alone, and though she had and _loved_ her father _very_ much, she didn't know what she would do without her mother. Brooke had always been there for her—taken care of her, loved her, protected her…in fact she had gotten hurt _protecting_ Serena from a demon.

"What happens if she dies?" Serena asked her father softly.

Dean cleared his throat and looked at the sadness in her eyes, threatening to wreck his foundation. He was trying to be strong for his little girl, but having Brooke lying there helpless made him feel like he had done something wrong—made him feel like he couldn't protect his family like he had tried so hard to do. As Serena looked up at him again and then back to her cards, taking her father's silence as something more serious, and then he spoke and she looked directly at him.

"Serena? I'm _not_ going to let that happen. I _promise_ you that she will be okay." Dean told her, swallowing as Serena nodded and turned her attention back to her card game.

**Note: That was just the intro—longer chapters later, I **_**promise**_**! Feedback is always appreciated!**


	2. Brooke's Sacrifices

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**This has flashbacks, just wanted to get the ball rolling, and ages and things will be discussed as well with some Saley in here.**

**WARNINGS: Language, Blood, Gore, Sex, Dark Themes**

**ENJOY!**

xxxx

Dean tucked Serena in, in the waiting room since she had fallen asleep. They had been waiting for a doctor to come and talk to them about Brooke's condition, and Serena had been pretty exhausted. It had been a rather trying day for her and Dean understood that, kissing her forehead and taking a deep breath in himself—Dean was scared…he was _really_ scared.

He'd always known that Serena was his daughter, and he'd always made it a point to see her as much as he could, but he hadn't been around much. Sadly enough, Serena had turned 9 the month before and Dean had been in the middle of a hunt and missed the very first birthday party he'd ever missed, coming in that night and having to wake her up at 11:47pm to tell her he was sorry and give her a present. What if Brooke died?

Dean had never been a _full-time_ father before and he didn't even know where to start. He didn't know her school schedule, or any of her friends' names—he didn't know a single thing about her normal life. All that Dean knew was that he loved his daughter very much, and he had been trying to make a better life for her and trying to keep the demons from finding out about Brooke and Serena. He had been protecting them by making sure the demons couldn't use his girls as leverage to get to him…and now Brooke had paid that price.

"Mr. Winchester?" The doctor asked.

Dean looked up and then after pushing Serena's dark air out of her face, he stood up and crossed to him. He had been waiting for this for a little while and he didn't know what was going to happen. Brooke had been poisoned by the demon she had fought and since Dean had to stay with Serena, Bobby and Sam were working away on finding and/or making an antidote. Dean felt like he was helpless just sitting around here, but his daughter needed him, and Brooke needed him.

"How is she?" Dean asked her hurriedly.

The doctor just kind of shook his head and began to explain to him that she wasn't doing well, but she was stable for right then. Dean could feel his chest tighten up at the thought of losing Brooke and suddenly all he could think about was his and Brooke's very first in depth conversation a few months after they'd first met. Sam, Haley and Brooke all went to school together and on one hunt that brought them back, Haley and Brooke finding out about demons…it was the night Serena was conceived and Dean knew that Brooke was the girl that he let in that would never leave him.

"_You can't just say something like that to me!" Dean yelled at her, sitting down on Brooke's bed and putting his head in his hands. "You can't just tell me that you believe me and that you think I'm a good person! You don't even __**know**__ me!"_

_Brooke sighed and sat on his lap, making him look at her and kissing him. "You're a hero, Dean—don't let anyone __**ever**__ tell you any differently. I mean Hales and I were __**freaked**__ at first but…we trust you and Sam with our lives."_

"_You can't get attached to me." Dean warned her._

"_I already am." Brooke replied kissing him again, her hands moving down to his belt._

_Dean just let her and though there was this voice in his head telling him to stop her, he knew he didn't __**want**__ to. Dean wanted to be with Brooke even though he knew that she was only 17 and that he should be pushing her away. Normally Dean didn't care about things like that, but this was Brooke Davis—this was a girl that Dean actually __**respected**__ and he couldn't take advantage of her._

"_We can't." Dean told her shaking his head as she pulled her shirt off and went to pull his off too._

_Brooke ran her nose along his. "Just…stay with me, Dean…please."_

"_All right." Dean replied with a small nod._

_Brooke smiled and helped Dean out of his shirt, completely willing to take the next step no matter what. She knew that Dean wasn't going to stick around with her, but she wanted to be there with him and to prove to him that he mattered. Even then, Dean hadn't ever realized just how deeply in love with him she was falling…he never thought someone like her would __**want**__ someone like him, but she did._

"_Are you sure?" Dean asked suddenly, both of them lying on the bed with no more obstacles between them._

_Brooke just rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm sure."_

Dean hadn't even cared that what he had done to her was wrong—he knew that at 21 he shouldn't have been taking advantage of a 17 year-old girl, but she got him…she got him and she'd wanted it just as much as he had. He respected her, and he loved being with her, but he knew he couldn't let himself get too close and Brooke understood that—she understood that Dean had a different kind of life. Still when he found out that he was going to be a father, part of him felt like there was nothing better than that…part of him felt like Brooke was responsible for him getting to lead some kind of normal life.

Unfortunately, Dean understood what it meant to be a hunter—what it meant to have demons find out your weaknesses—and Dean made sure not to visit more than once a month unless something important was happening. He didn't want the demons to know about or hurt his family, but he wanted to be there—he made it to birthdays (Brooke's _and_ Serena's), school functions, parent-teacher conferences, he tried to be there for Serena when she was sick…he just hadn't been there like he should have been. If he had been a better father, he could have saved Brooke _and_ gotten rid of the demon…he had made such terrible choices.

"Can I see her?" Dean asked the doctor.

xx

"Found anything yet?" Haley asked Sam, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his head as he stared at his laptop.

Haley and Sam had met in Junior High, and then come college Haley was surprised to see Sam at Stanford. They became inseparable and after Serena was born, Haley and Sam got married and a week after Serena turned 2, Jamie was born and suddenly it was like Haley had everything she'd ever wanted—a loving husband, a beautiful son, a talented ad charming niece, a best friend that was also pretty much family…and now this. Haley had been pretty devastated, but at the same time, she knew they had to get down to business, and she had faith that Bobby would be able to save Brooke before things got too bad.

"Dean's got to be freaking out right now." Sam said with a sigh, shaking his head. "Not to mention Serena—if she loses her mother, I don't…I don't know, Hales."

Haley smiled sadly. "Maybe this is the wake-up that Dean needed. When Brooke recovers from this, Dean will realize that even though his reasons were sound, he was being an idiot and he needs to be with his family…he needs to admit that he loves Brooke Davis and do right by her and his daughter."

"How is Jamie taking it?" Sam asked, turning around and holding Haley as she sat on his lap and ran her fingers through his hair.

"He's sleeping now, but he's worried. He keeps asking me if 'Aunt Brooke' is going to be okay and he wants to be at the hospital with Serena." Haley said with a sad smile. "He loves that cousin of his like a sister."

Sam smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I know he does. I want to be at the hospital now too, but I just feel like right now we need to find this antidote—and we need to figure out _why_ the demon attacked. I just can't figure that out…I mean there has to be something else behind all of this, right? I mean what exactly is going on around here? What's the bigger master plan?"

Haley shrugged a little bit and took a deep breath, kissing Sam softly and then getting off of his lap, pulling out her cell phone. Sam went back to the laptop to try and figure out how to summon the demon back that had gotten Brooke, and Haley called Bobby. The demon had come for one reason and one reason only as far as Sam could tell—poison Brooke. To get to Dean? What did Brooke know that the others didn't know? What had the demon told her?

xx

Dean kissed Brooke's hand as he held it, Brooke smiling weakly and wondering where Serena was. When she looked around though, she saw Serena sleeping in a nearby chair, and then Dean was getting onto the hospital bed with her, holding her and stroking her hair. Brooke closed her eyes and nuzzled him fondly, wishing that her life had been a little different—wishing she could have gotten Dean to love her like she loved him, but she couldn't spend time in the past. She had understood his reasons for never being around even though she'd always wanted more from him…_always_.

"Bobby's working on getting the antidote." Dean whispered to her, kissing her temple.

Brooke smiled sadly. "Yeah? That's Bobby for you—always there when you need him to be there."

"Yeah…so…what happened?" Dean asked her softly. "What are we up against?"

"Promise me that you'll take care of her if I don't make it, Dean." Brooke told him suddenly.

_Brooke knew it was only a matter of time before a demon came to try and get to Serena, but she had hoped that it wouldn't be now—she had hoped the demons would forget. She knew that there was an Apocalypse happening and that Michael and Lucifer needed vessels but to try and use Jamie and Serena? To use a 9 year-old and a 7 year-old? That just seemed to fantastical to Brooke._

"_You can't have her…you won't __**find**__ her." Brooke told the demon, unable to move._

_She'd actually gotten the upper hand on the demon when it had come in, but then the demon had been winning. Brooke was frozen in place, feeling the poison working its magic on her, but she knew she had one more trick up her sleeve and the second the demon got distracted, Brooke felt able to move and attacked. She wasn't going to let her daughter be threatened—she wasn't going to let anything happen to Serena…even if she knew the poison had no antidote, and she was now going to have to die to protect her._

Brooke _knew_ that she wasn't going to make it through this, and she knew that Dean was starting to get upset that she was talking like this. She just needed to make sure that no matter what happened Serena was going to be safe. There was a war going on here and there was a way that Serena could help to be the answer that the world was looking for. The demons thought she would be the vessel they needed since Dean wasn't going to say 'yes' to Michael—it was _definitely_ a good plan B since it was in Serena's blood…but now Brooke was worried about Jamie since he was in fact _Sam's_ son.

"What aren't you telling me?" Dean asked her. "You need to be honest with me here, Brooke."

Brooke nodded slowly. "I know…I'm just…I'm a little scared of what's happening around us, Dean. The demons? They know about Serena…they know that she's your daughter, and therefore they know that the angels could want her as a plan B…you knew this was coming, didn't you? I mean Zach sent you into the future and you saw something terrible and you wouldn't talk to me about it."

"Because I knew that I could stop it." Dean replied, swallowing down the pain. "I just…I can't believe that this is happening—I thought I was choosing a different future."

"Maybe…maybe you need to try something else." Brooke explained to him, swallowing a little bit. "I mean…maybe what you needed to do all along was just be with Serena."

Dean swallowed and cupped Brooke's face, making her look him in the eye. He was worried about her, and he knew that he had strong feelings for her, but why was it that suddenly he couldn't think about life without her? What was it that she wasn't telling him? Why was it like she was trying to get her affairs in order? Was there _no_ antidote?

"Brooke, I need you to—" Dean tried, but Brooke cut him off with a kiss.

She used all of her remaining strength to press her lips to Dean's, making sure to show him how she felt about him. She'd been in love with him since Serena was two and Dean had spent some of her birthday giving Sam some damn good advice on how to be a father even though Dean was never around. He had proved to Brooke that day that he loved his family, he was just trying _so hard_ to _protect_ them, that he wasn't really making as many decisions the way Brooke wished he would—he was far too focused on keeping her and Serena safe.

"I love you." Brooke whispered to him. "I love you so much more than you'll ever know."

Dean could feel the tears coming to his eyes but he kept them at bay. "I love you too."

"It's nice to know you mean it." She said softly, looking at him fondly. "It's also nice to finally hear it."

"Mommy?" Serena asked softly.

Brooke looked over as Serena woke up and then smiled at her, glad to have Serena climb up onto the bed as well and cuddle with her. All Brooke wanted right then was to have her family with her and she had just that—her daughter, and the man she loved and had always wanted to be married to. So the three just cuddled each other and lay there in silence, Brooke kissing Serena's head and telling herself that she wasn't going to cry…she wasn't going to cry.

**Note: I know, I know—**_**so**_** much angst, but I have a **_**lot**_** up my sleeve for this one! Expect more flashbacks in the next one! Feedback is always appreciated!**


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